‘Wounded child, no surviving family’: the plight of Gaza’s traumatised orphans

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In the intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, a severely injured girl has been on a ventilator for weeks without any visitors or family around her.

Despite the thousands of Gazans searching for loved ones affected by Israel’s two-month brutal bombing of the Strip, no one has come for her.

The child, who lost both her parents, is now labelled as a WCNSF, or “wounded child, no surviving family”, by medics who say the number of such cases is higher than in any of the numerous wars Gaza has witnessed.

The girl, whose name unknown, is in no condition to communicate with others.

A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told media that the child had been brought in about a month ago, along with dozens of casualties after an air strike targeted a residential building in the centre of Khan Younis.

Health workers said her identity was unknown, primarily because her injuries were so severe that she was unrecognisable. It was also possible that her entire family had perished.

More than 17,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed since Israel started bombing Gaza following the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel that left 1,200 people dead. Entire families in the besieged enclave have been wiped out.

Ricardo Peris, Unicef’s communications manager, told media that his organisation “is working to gather and provide an accurate number of unaccompanied and separated children and orphans inside the Gaza Strip”.

But “this is very difficult, given the intensity of hostilities and rapidly evolving situation on the ground”.

He said Unicef has been trying to reach hospitals and medics in Gaza to identify and register children and to promote the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hotline to help reunite children as part of its family links programme.

However, Mr Peris cautioned, “designating safe spaces for these children is presently nearly impossible due to the chaotic and overcrowded conditions in shelters and hospitals. The standard system to identify, document, trace, and reunify children is barely operational” and this is further complicated by communication obstacles and limited access.